Posted Aug 16, 2017 at 6:11 PMUpdated at 12:12 AM
“I never killed anyone in my life. It hasn’t hit me as yet,” remarked Shawn Peterson, who says he shot an intruder Monday night.
The Marion County Sheriff’s Office has identified the man who was shot to death during an apparent home invasion Monday night in Summerfield as 32-year-old Shawn Michael King.
The Ocala man died at Ocala Health Summerfield ER, at 14193 S. U.S. 441 in Summerfield, after he was dropped off there around 11 p.m., according to the Sheriff’s Office.
About a half an hour earlier, detectives said, King was shot after he barged into a home at 10420 SE 158th Place in what they are calling an armed home invasion.
The man who shot King, 35-year-old Shawn Paul Peterson, said Wednesday that he, his girlfriend and his 4-year-old pit bull named Zeus, were inside their bedroom when he heard his back door being kicked in. Peterson said his dog ran out the room and went toward the noise. He said his dog was not going to attack whoever was making the noise, but rather wanted to see what was going on.
Peterson said he heard several gunshots and then heard scuffling inside the home. He said he saw a shadow coming toward his bedroom so he locked the door. Peterson said he twice shouted, “What’s this all about?” and then heard a gunshot fired from outside the door and into his bedroom.
The shot did not hit anyone.
Peterson said the intruder kept banging on the door. He said his girlfriend hid in the closet. While she was there, he said, the woman threw him his shotgun and he fired a blast at the door. He thinks the intruder may have been shot in the chest.
“I never killed anyone in my life. It hasn’t hit me as yet,” Peterson said. He said another man who shares the house was also there, inside his own room, when the incident occurred.
Deputies were called to the home — which is on a narrow road — and when they arrived, Peterson told them that someone armed with a handgun had come inside his home and injured his dog. Deputies said Peterson told them the armed individual tried to get into his bedroom and he shot the person. Peterson said the injured man fled the home.
“I want to know who did this. It’s clueless. I’m a working man,” Peterson told the Star-Banner.
Peterson said Zeus was shot three times, with one of bullets hitting the 85-pound dog in the head. The dog is alive, Peterson said. He said his back door has three bullet holes and he believes more than one person entered the home.
“He’s a good dog. He never leaves my side,” Peterson said.
Detectives on Wednesday said their investigation is ongoing and that no one has been arrested.
State records show King had been convicted of burglary, grand theft and grand theft of a motor vehicle. He was released from prison in March 2011.
